help with this piece requested

[Randy Hoch]

This is ash, seasoned for 13 years in a friend's basement. Dry as a bone - hard as a rock. He was going to turn this wood, but lost his tools including lathe in a divorce. He gave it to me along with several other large pieces with the admonition to "turn it or burn it!'" I chucked this piece up and tried to develop this open form, and I just couldn't believe the fiddleback and ripple in it, therefore I'd really like to not screw it up too badly. I've stabilized several cracks with CA and the wall thickness is a fairly even 1/2 inch right now.

I have two questions: How thin should I try to make the walls?? (I'm relatively inexperienced - as you can probably well see.) Does 7/16ths sound about right? This piece is 12 in x 4.5 in.

Also, I plan to reverse chuck to finish off the bottom and was wondering if it would look ok to just cut off the tenon and round off the shoulder, or... does it need some sort of a foot??

I appreciate comments, even (and especially) if they're critical.

Randy Hoch

[Glenn Hodges]

Randy beauty is in the eye of the holder. Some can't deal with the cracks and would burn it, some would make the cracks wider by carving and filling them with something like turquoise or malachite, and some turners are not bothered by the cracks and would leave them alone. The problem is if you get the bowl to thin you stand a chance of loosing the piece. So I would suggest you stop at 7/16 because of the cracks. Keep in mind this is only my humble suggestion.

[Curt Fuller]

My 2 cents on a bowl like that is that the base where it meets the chuck is the base that would look best on it. I'd just reverse it and turn off the tenon, make the bottom slightly concave so it won't rock, and call it good. As for the cracks, I'd fill them now before taking the walls any thinner. Fine ground coffee mixed with epoxy or packed into the cracks and saturated with CA would give a nice contrast to the wood and make the cracks look like a design feature instead of just cracks. The coffee has a little texture of it's own so it usually looks pretty good. You can also add just a few specks of gold glitter to give it a little sparkle. Then after it's dry, finish turning it to the thickness you like and the crack filler will also help to stabilze the cracks and reduce the chance of catching a gouge in them and launching it across the room. Hope that helps.

[Bruce Pennell]

Randy if you fill the cracks with epoxy and coffee, inlace, turquoise, or what ever, you could also put a collar of contrasting wood 1/2" or 3/4" on top of your rim. That would give you even more stability. Just another suggestion...Bruce

[curtis rosche]

i think it looks good. for thickness, that depends on the other wood you have, if the other peices of ash are also figured peices, i would say turn one, and see how thin it will go, but no thinner than 3/16, then if it blows up you just leave the other peices a little thicker than when it blew up

[Richard Madison]

Randy,
A thickness of 7/16" is probably good for one who is "relatively inexperienced". The piece will look good at that thickness, and if cracks not too bad and you feel confident, you could go on to 3/8".

When you reverse chuck it, you could clean up the tenon and just see how it looks to YOU as a foot. If you don't like it, easy enough to turn it off. The idea is to develop your own "eye" for what looks good by trying different things.

[Randy Hoch]

Curt,
The cracks are already filled with medium CA over thin CA. They were pretty much hairline for the most part. I thought about opening them up with a dremel in order to get coffee grounds in but decided against it. I think the wood has enough going for it that folks won't dwell on the cracks. I was thinking several coats of danish oil, assuming it makes it that far. I'm deliberating about removing the inside edge at the rim perhaps rounding that off.

Curtis,
The photos don't do the wood justice at all - it truly is special. If it were not so figured, I might consider your sacrificial experiment!

Bruce,
I'm intimidated by a 12 inch collar project. I'll have to start a bit smaller I think, and then work my way up.

Randy Hoch

[Mitchell Cholewinski]

Randy
You have a nice turnng going there so far. Why worry about how thin you can turn it, you don't get any extra points for thinness. Turn it untill you are satisfied that you did your very best you can do. I am sure we will all like the results. Good Luck Mitch

[Frank Drew]

That's a nice piece of wood, Randy. Perhaps it's just the photo, but there looks like there's a bit of a flat area about a third of the way up the outside that could be refined a bit before you reduce to the final thickness.

I think this outward flaring hollow shape takes well to thin walls although I agree that thin isn't always better; this inverted shape also allows for easy inside turning, without the same danger of torn grain, at least in my experience.

[Clara Koss]

i like glenn's idea of filling in cracks with a different wood or designer stone...cracks can give the peice class like a nice scar or a man's face gives him mystery and character...hahahaha....i'm a girl don't ya know...

[Bernie Weishapl]

Randy I think wall thickness is fine. A friend of mine Larry Hasiak told me one time turn a bowl with thin walls and get it out of your system. He also said at a demo do a HF with a tiny opening and get it out of your system. What I will do on hairline cracks is sand a little over the crack to fill it with sanding dust and then put some thin CA on it. Once all the cracks are dry finish sanding. I agree with Curt just turn it around, turn off the tenon and make it slightly concave then it is done. Put some finish on it.

[Randy Hoch]

Frank,
I see what you mean, especially in the photo on the right in the original post. I agree with you and I think that this should be able to be modified b/c the wall thickness is slightly greater right in that spot. Thanks for your thoughtful criticism! I'll post the final photos - I haven't touched this piece since I photographed it.

Randy

[Allen Neighbors]

Nice job, so far, Randy. All previous suggestions sound right on to me.
I might just add one. When stopping cracks with CA, it's usually best to put a sealer on the wood first, to keep the CA from staining the wood. I use a mixture of 65% Thinner/35% Lacquer. It'll sand away enough during the sanding process to still use an oil finish if you want to. Just a suggestion.
Beautiful wood! Looking good, thus far! Don't forget to post a pic when it's done.